Conversations in the ED:

Dr. Joe Becker: You know, I looked at my schedule this month and told my wife, "Hey, honey. I don't think I really have time for residency this month."

Tejas: So what do you do besides play doctor?

JB: I freak out if I notice myself slipping up on my Spanish or French ... so I like to do random things like read Harry Potter in French ... and I tell you, it takes me twice as long as it takes in English. You know, stuff like that takes up my time.

Tejas: uh-huh. [Tejas promptly went to to B&N that evening and bought Harry Potter in Spanish.]


Becker is awesome. I'll tell you why. First, he's from San Francisco. He looks like your typical American white boy -- tall, blond, blue eyed, built like a quarterback. His proper place would be in a country club in Cherry Hills, sipping margaritas or doing whatever rich people do with their time. But Becker is cool because he defies such stereotypes. He took a year off in the middle of medical school at UCSF to go galavanting around the world. Lived in Guatemala. After graduation, he and his wife moved to Africa [Cameroon, Rwanda] and lived there doing HIV work for three years. Now he's back in the States finishing up residency in Emergency Medicine. I liked working with him because he [1] acknowledged my existence [which some residents don't] and [2] taught me how to place a central line.

I've noticed this trend with many ED residents -- they play doctor AND they do something else. Sometimes that "something else" is being a mom, getting a J.D., or galavanting around Nigeria. A lot of them do international work -- which ROCKS and is the major reason why I like the specialty. I worked with Dr. Jeff Lazar today -- he was Johnson and Johnson scholar who worked in Zambia for a while. He was nice and I totally loved the shift [mainly because one of my patients told me that I would a great doctor one day because I was smart and compasionate ... awwww shucks... its always a great day when that happens].